Musician Gear & Tech Discussion

Or at least I'm about to be when I get paid. I've played through some upper-end Marshalls in stores, and they sound pretty good, but recently a friend told me about Mesa Boogie amps, and on doing some research, I think I'm interested in checking them out, but there's not dealer around where I could test them out. So, have any of you tried these amps out? They seem to have a good deal of renown. Would you recommend that over Marshall? Thanks.

No Guitar Centers?
It's etiher Marshall, Line6 or Mesa
Count Obvious was here

I have a lot of experience with Mesa's.

I have a Triple Rectifier with 4x12 cab, I have a Roadster Combo, I have a Subway Rocket and I have one of those old V-Twin pedals for a preamp.

I play in a hard rock party band with a lot emphasis on 70s guitar rock all the way up to Chili Peppers and Kidd Rock. Currently live I use a Mesa Subway Rocket. 20 watts EL 84 tubes 2 channels. The only thing I hate is it has shared eq controls between the clean and dirty channel. They dont make these anymore. It has a 10 inch Black Shadow speaker, we play 3-4 gigs a month. If you go to my profile and listen to the music there, the cover songs I used this amp and various pedals. We have a very good pa system. This amp will get a clean sound like the opening guitar on Sweet Home Alabama all the way to sounding like Rhoads on Crazy Train. I use a few pedals in front to spike it, but its the best sounding amp Ive ever owned and Ive had bunch of them. Its also very light and portable if you travel playing a lot. My pedal board is twice as big as the amp, but I can sling a guitar over my shoulder, my board in one hand and the amp in another. I would recomend looking for a simple tube amp that gets a really good tone. One good tone is worth way more than a bunch of bad sounds.

The Triple Rectifier is a beast. Ive come to realize that for small club playing say 300 seats and down it is totally too much amp. You cant open these amps up cause they overblow the room and the pa systems. I love it for outdoor gigs where I cant open it up but when I use it indoors I use a Weber Attenuator on it to drop the volume to a reasonable level.

The Roadster Combo is 100 watt tube amp with 2x12 in a sealed box. Ive had this thing for a year and thought it would be my go too amp but I have yet to get it to sound like I want. Ive changed tubes all the settings. It is an expensive amp with 4 independent channels, but for the money I wouldnt recomend it.

Mesa makes a little combo called an Express 5:25 or Express 5:50. This amp is based off the same preamp section as my little Subway, but it has independent tone controls for the 2 channels. It has the ability to switch between 5 watts and 25 watts or 5 watts and 50 watts depending on the model you want. Being able to switch watts is a cool feature for recording or practicing by yourself. And dont be fooled a 25 watt tube amp is all you will need unless you are in a metal band.

Good Luck.

Marshalls I always liked a JCM 800 50 watt head with a 4x12 cab. They are loud but get to the sweet spot and thats what you hear all over 80s metal.

I would say the Mesa Rec sound is what you hear on songs by Nickleback and groups like that, commercial radio rock of the last 15 years. Most studios will have a mesa rec sitting around for rythym parts.

I think the head on Fenders is okay, but I like the Gibson head a lot. I really hate the headstock on my Danelectro, though. Rickenbackers have a nice distinctive head on 'em.

I blew the head gasket in my Jeep. I don't recommend doing that.

I like the head on a good Guiness, too.

Always thought the heads on those Cabbage Patch dolls were about the ugliest things ever.

I used to have a girlfriend that would...ooops! wrong forum!

lol Phil I should use a Cabbage Patch Kids head for the headstock on one of my guitars. That would be funny.

jw123, thanks for the detailed information. Sounds like a good amp to me. I'm planning on spending 900 or less if I can manage that. I've gone through that JCM 50-watt you mentioned in a store back home in Baltimore, and it sounded nice, but the price tag was a smidge too large for my wallet to handle. If the Mesa can handle the lows of Drop C and give a clear and crisp sound, you've definitely sold me on it.

Also, what kind of pedals do you go through, out of curiosity?

Splawn (Nitro)
But that will be way over 900 bones... and no chain of 'dealers'.
Sounds like a jcm 800 on steroids and adrenaline, crossbred with a mesa recto.
It can handle the low tuning stuff and be clear as well.

But.. for cheaper... check out ENGL. That might fit the drop tuning tightness youre looking for.

Repress We play some drop d stuff Them Bones, Dam That River, Even Flow, Outshined, Spoonman stuff in that vein.

For dropped tunings I like a bigger cab, but when I mic the little mesa it does a good job. It will push a 4x12 cab and sound good. I rarely other than recording drop to c. It kind of tweaks the necks on my guitars and Ive learned how to fake songs like that.

In the 900 dollar range I would look at one of the express amps if you are interested in a Mesa. Its a good starter amp in that line and miced up will sound really good. If you are playing with guys running stacks they will kill you on volume. I used to sit in with a guy who had a Marshall Valvestate half stack. 100 watt solid state and my little Subway amp would tear him a new ass hole. At the end of the night he would have his amp dimed out and still not cut with the little Mesa. If you are going to play a smaller combo amp like a Subway or and Express it helps to learn to use the volume control on your guitar. Our band covers a lot of ground from song to song. I can roll the volume on the guitar way off to clean it up and then just crank it up to get the crunch I want.

Pedal wise, I used to have a picture but cant get to it.

X-4 wireless into a Boss tuner, Morley Bad Horsie Wah, TS-9, Black Jack Booster Pedal, Analog Chorus I forget the brand Im using currently, Arion Octave Pedal, into a Line 6 Delay modeler(analog delay short,reverse, distorted delay long) This is all housed in one of those Pedal Pad boards with power to all pedals. I also use a whammy pedal for recording, its too noisy and sucks too much tone for live playing.

Repress heres a picture of a couple of my setups and my pedal board

Heres my pedal board

Repress I'll add to this post.

I was using the stack for a while, for all out metal its great but its hell to haul this stuff around. I was using the Roadster combo beside it which is a fantastic amp but its finicky. Since Ive gone to using my Little amp The Subway Rocket which I dont have a picture of my bandmates and people that come to see us have all commented that my guitar is sounding better than ever.

Tone has nothing to do with the size of your amp or volume. Those big amps look great but arent necessary to sound good. This is coming from an older guy who always had the reputation of being the loudest guitarist in the area. My ears buzz all the time.

I think I mentioned in another post that Ive never been fired from a gig for playing too quiet, but thru the years I closed a lot of doors by being too loud.

ANother amp I recnetly saw that was cool was a Peavey Viper, they are reasonably priced. You mentioned a Marshall JCM 800, great great amp but it is very one demensional in sound. It does what it does great but not much else. I would still love to have one myself for certain things. A nice marshall halfstack would cost around 1200-1600 dollars.

For real portability I have a POD PRO rack unit with floor pedal. It has a great setting for the JCM 800 sound, in fact for recording if I want that tone I will use it over my other amps, it sounds that good.

Good Luck, get out there somewhere and try a few amps. Im not that big on detuning so you might want to get some advice from folks that play in that genre for more help.

I have had a Crate Blue Voodoo (BV120H) for almost 10 years. That thing is tough as HELL! With a minor modification(which allows me to use EL34s in place of the stock 6L6s), and some pedal assistance(Boss SD1 overdrive and EQ pedal), you can't tell the difference between my amp and a Boogie... (except mine is not as noisy as a Boogie). (just beware, the Crate cabinets are absolute crap!)

It has been practiced, recorded and toured... Still in great shape!
And the great news is that if you find one, you are not going to pay any more than $500 for it! (I think you can still get them new for around $700).

I mean, Mesa/Boogie is THE amp, right? But you are paying an extra GRAND for the name!

Also... another possibility is the B-52 AT100 triple rec head...
You can get those sounding exactly like a Boogie as well (ref : http://enamelband.com/temporary/B52vsMESA) and they are around $500 new...

I think the head on Fenders is okay, but I like the Gibson head a lot. I really hate the headstock on my Danelectro, though. Rickenbackers have a nice distinctive head on 'em.

I blew the head gasket in my Jeep. I don't recommend doing that.

I like the head on a good Guiness, too.

Always thought the heads on those Cabbage Patch dolls were about the ugliest things ever.

I used to have a girlfriend that would...ooops! wrong forum!

It,s a good thing I read through these post before I posted, because I was thinkin' along the same lines as philbey!
Notice how the old guys refer to "guitar head" as that thing that your tuning pegs are fastened to, and the youngins think a guitar head is a friggin' amplifier!

Yo Phil!
I bet that ol' jeep still has a smile on its face!

Back on topic
Most any amp with tubes in it is probably a good one.

Howlin'

I love my Carvin amp. Vintage Nomad. They also have a smaller tube amp in the 15 watt range. If you dont want to go combo. (and I would not now that know more about it all) Carvin makes some Heads with switchable outputs effects loops and such. As well as some modeling type solid state amps. Check out Carvin.com they have some sound samples you can download. Though there is nothing like being there and playing it yourself.

Back on topic
Most any amp with tubes in it is probably a good one.

Howlin'

That is a great point... Any tube head through GOOD speakers is going to treat you right... Don't forget as well, the pups are going to contribute to the overall sound...

That is why I usually tend toward cheap tube amps (Crate, B52, Peavy, etc) - connect those to a good cab with Celestian speakers, play a guitar with some nice DiMarzio pups... You are going to get a pretty quality sound...

If you have an extra 2 grand to blow, pick up a Road King or Stilleto... GREAT amps with GREAT speakers... But, I promise for about 1/2 (in some cases 1/4) of the price, you can create an identical sound...

The most important thing is to find YOUR sound... something that matches what you are doing... (for example, I don't know many country artists that go for Boogie Triple Rec Solo - or many metal players that are looking for a Fender Twin Reverb)

@Howlin: I call those "headstocks."

All this information's really helpful. Thanks. I might try my luck at a Mesa, and look at those Peaveys as well. I have a Marshall cabinet with four Celestions already, so all I need is a good tube head. As for my budget, all I need is to keep it under one thousand. I might try looking around eBay for a cheaper one of the Mesas. I'll be sure to try out the Peavey tube head and some others as well.

I have Alnico humbuckers on my guitar, and I think they sound pretty awesome for what I do (Post-hardcore).